friday five #35

01. that cee lo single - you know the one. i'm not going to say it. (click at your own risk and not at work, i warned you) it's killing me that i can't download it yet! it's so flipping catchy and you can't help but sing it, no matter how inappropriate it may be in certain places, haha. in the meantime, i'm listening to his single off the eclipse soundtrack a lot too.

02. the next e.i. - i wish i hadn't said every two weeks, i've got a whole bunch of "elsewhere inspiration" saved up and i could really be doing one a week. but, until next wednesday i will quench my thirst with this weeks dare. perfection.

03. ohemgeejaybells - k facebooked this earlier this week and it's inspiring a whole new house party hopes mix (albeit a delayed new roost edition). it's not perfectly, perfectly timed, but it's pretty yummy nonetheless. "dirt on your crown" & "izzo rhythm" are my favorites.

04. triple fringe - true, i have been lusting after these since last fall, but i feel like this summer into autumn time of year is the perfect time to knab a pair of these are start rocking them. if not now, when? i'm totally prepared to catch $#!T for them, but i just always feel sassier in a goof pair of boots, which is why i'm also currently lusting after these and/or these and umm... these too (even though they're a little bit totally straight up tranny).

05. get him to the roost - totally planning a super nerdy, super cheesy viewing party for the dvd release of "get him to the greek" complete with invites, party favors and themed food & drink. that's right. you best be coming, or i will sergio you.

big trouble in little brooklyn...

so, little miss k here would be the first to tell you that i am no good at getting messy when i'm scrapping or whatever else. but when vee posted her "get painty" dare i decided to push up my hoodie sleeves and get into it already! 

i used a few of the stencils from that stencil me in book i got a month or so a go and about half a bottle of "haunted shadows" glimmer mist, which is probably my new favorite glimmer mist color! i was just about to type that i can't wait to get my hands on a full size bottle instead of the tiny bottle they gave away at cha, when the ups guy walked in with our glimmer mist order. dare i say spooky?

anyway, i love, love, love how the gold shimmer in the purple glimmer mist turned up on the plain bazzill background (which is another thing i rarely do). i also used my little galaxy gold brilliance ink pad on the edges of the page and pressed the mini maya road chipboard letters into the pad to "paint" them shimmery gold (my little trick to avoid breaking out the paint & brushes.)

love how it turned out and actually really loved getting messy!

p.s. sorry for the bad pictures, it's tricky capturing the glimmer on such a rainy grey day!

3 places to be inspired by, and collaborate with...

matthew gray gubler -  you may know him as the grandpa cardi wearing, adorably awkward dr. spencer reid on criminal minds or the intern from the life aquatic with steve zissou, but he also runs an awesome website called gublerland. gublerland is a faraway place where you can see matthew gray gubler's drawings, photos, movies  and even listen to him read edgar allen poe or sing the cheers theme song on "gube radio." recently he has opened the gublerland immigration teepee where you can download a blank passport and fill it in yourself to become a gubloid; a citizen of gublerland. i just filled mine out today with the help of some glimmer mist & my complete inability to draw. regardless of all that, it was really fun to do and helped me remember to not let myself take creativity too seriously.

rainn wilson - so, rainn wilson obviously has more to bestow upon us than schrute-bucks and tiger striped spandex a la "the rocker". he also runs a collective style website called soulpancake. he does the best job of explaing it in this here video, but the main gist of things = a place for questions, discussions and challenges or, as rainn wilson puts it, a place to "chew on life's big questions." i can already see the creative challenges making their way into a scrapbook of their very own sometime soon, my favorites so far include, "sketchify your soul," "control freak" & peace on a post-it." i can't wait to start playing along on these.

joseph gordon-levitt - it's been a while since 3rd rock from the sun and lately jgl has been making me drool in brick, 500 days of summer & even during a teeny-tiny appearance in the brothers bloom. he also goes by regularJOE on his website, hitRECord.org which encourages collaboration and remixing between artists of all mediums; film, music, drawing & all the in-betweens. the forums seems to be full of ideas and opportunities to share all forms of creativity once you sign up and there are a ton of amazing pieces to look at. i will confess that this is the site i find the most daunting to jump into, but what better way than to just go to it, right? 

dare me?

the dare girls have been creating some ridiculous stuff as of late, so i thought i'd finally join back in on the fun, especially when dare #142 i came out; "Twit-dare. Tweets + photos = instant scrappage."  i remembered that when john, jasmine & i went to jackson rathbone's show (they're called 100 monkeys) i had favorited all the tweets that we were sending back and forth all night so that i could use them as my journaling on a layout. then, the dare came around and pushed me to finally do it, thanks ladies! so, here's my layout!

it was pretty hilarious to re-live the night through tweets, you can click here to read them if you aren't faint of heart, and i got to use up some stash! i've been majorly, ruthlessly cleaning out the crafty area lately and it's great to re-discover the stuff i have had for a while, like those love, elsie rubber charms and bg from like 4 releases a go, but good product never goes bad! 

i'm excited to be scrapping again, it's been months since i've done an actual layout that isn't for a class or anything, and it felt really good to be playing again! i'll probably head straight over to the table when i get home from work today, lots of rad pictures from my brooklyn trip to be scrapped!

wow!

first of all, really long time no blog. sorry! i'm sure y'all aren't hanging on my every post anyway!

second of all, look how rad my new blog set up is! i am totally in love wiht it. i scrapped the banner yesterday and actually figured out the layout myself, haha. i am kind of inept when it comes to this stuff sometimes so usually aimee does it for me because she is so rad. this is also my first banner i've designed myself! yay! anyway, imagine i am posh spice when i say this is going to be a major listy type update and then i'll be better for reals.

* ummm okay, i know i said this last time, but this weeks into it over it song, "ashley's big adventure" is defenitly my favorite so far. i continue to be more and more impressed every week.

* kristina's visit consisted of little sleep, lot's of weird clothing at the mall, beer samples, russian hats, photo booth pictures, little sleep, scrapping with nicole and lots of fun.

* i elfed nat, vee, myself and kristina in preperation for our fun get together this weekend in long island. we're going to brave the crazy tourist level to head into the city, hopefully hit the union square holiday flea market and have lots of fun and photos. marykate might head in with me too.

* i have been sick for what seems like forever, one of those horrible colds that just won't let go. it seems to finally be on its' way out and last night i could actually sleep with my head at a normal level, rather than propped up on several pillows, yay!

* thanksgiving was cozy, quiet and yummy. after dinner we watched evan almighty and traded christmas wishlists.

* speaking of wishlists, there are lots of yummies i am hoping for this year. like this awesome swing coat that i have been drooling over for like ever, this hello kitty woodgrain bank,

a little added time.

i can't pick the random winner of the rak challenge down there until i get home from work near a printer so y'all get a few more hours to enter. 'til about 9 p.m. est actually, so keep me giggling.

the crop i vended at saturday was fun. i got to actually scrap while i was there so it was nice. i got some little projects done; a this is me page, 2 circle journals and my daily card for that day. i still have 2 more this is me challenges to catch up on, but i might actually do that today at work. and i have a daily card to do.

i found a dress for the wedding friday at macy's yesterday with kate. it's a really dark, dark twilight blue silk and there is no way it would have looked good on me before i dyed my hair dark, it's funny how that can open up a whole new world of clothes! hehe. it's pretty, but i'm not like IN LOVE with it, so i'm going to check a couple little places after work today. we'll see how that goes. and when i get home i'll pick the two winners of the rak!

things are looking up!

in little ways and big ways!

01. first, and most importantly, nicole is in england! okay, you may be saying to yourself, "you do know you don't live there, right morgan?" well, yes. but somehow this seems closer to me than greece. maybe because i know that the states is the next stop from england, even if that will be a few weeks from now. still, yay! i am so envious of nicole's world traveler ways, but she is one of my very closest friends and it's hard not having her around. we are so going to take a fun road trip somewhere, not sure where yet.

02. i am totally caught up with my entries for the this is me challenge blog. that doodle one kicked my butt in a major way, but i'm just glad it's done!

03. thanks to teaching 9 ten year old girl scouts how to scrapbook yesterday, i got the extra money i needed to sign up for the first of 5 classes on my scrap bowl wishlist. it's kristina's inspire me class. i'm so psyched to finally get to work with one of those awesome acrylic albums! next on the wishlist, shimelle laine's i'm just a girl class. yeah, it's super pink and girly, but i need that every now and then! i'm so psyched on the killer group of girls headed to dulles, va for this event already and the list just keeps getting better and better.

04. jack & abby, owl pals, sweet skully & bunch more sassafras lass, figgy pudding and tons of heidi swapp are all headed for the store. maybe it will all come fedex, our fedex guy is kinda cute.

and since there happen to have been four prrofs that things are looking up, i might as well fill out that 4's survey that everyone is doing. epecially since i love top 4's so much more that 5's.

jobs i've had:

01. scrapbooker
02. barista
03. preschool teachers assistant
04. bookseller

movies i do, or could, watch over & over"

01. boondock saints
02. little miss sunshine
03. jay & silent bob strike back
04. better off dead

tv shows i watch:

01. heroes
02. pushing daisies
03. lost
04. gossip girl

places i've lived:

01. helena, montana
02. philadelphia, pa
03. flemington, nj
04. nazareth, pa

favorite foods:

01. honey mustard garlic pretzels
02. chicken & brocolli
03. bbq tofu quesadilla
04. coconut mahi mahi

favorite colors (i'm going to cheat, this is my fave 4 color combo):

01. raspberry pink (razleberry)
02. un-obnoxious lime green
03. white white
04. teal

places i'd love to be now:

01. olympia, washington
02. hanging out with the east coast scrappers
03. england catching up with nicole
04. ireland

names i like but would not use for my children:

01. milton
02. fiona
03. gage
04. fairlight

okay worlds longest blog entry, oops.

dirty dancing for sure!

so the ladies over at scrap mojo are really bringing the toughie challenges. the first one was to use, "nobody puts baby in a corner" as the title and use your own handmade felt embellies. sheesh! a toughie but def awesome creative excercise! here's mine;



i used one of my pics from the rilo kiley show a couple of weeks a go. man do i love that girlie! totally dug this challenge and i really want to be watching that movie right now, but i'm at work so instead i'll get some more scrappin' done.

finally...

... it's fallish, autumnesque and whatever other forms of those words you want to make up! i am sooooo psyched that it's actually starting to feel like fall! granted it's a kind of wet cold, rather than a crisp autumn feeling, but i'll take what i can get right now! that 90 degrees in october thing was killin me! so, here's to thermals with thumb holes, boots over jeans and switching from iced to hot coffee.

also, it's totally one of those weeks. i'm fighting off the depression at the edge of everything and am just feeling pretty bummed and grey day in general. i got a little bit of it out in my scrapping yesterday, but it's still biting at my heels in a major way. ugh!

so i got a lot done yesterday, it felt nice. i finished three circle journals for the group i'm in over at story of my life and i did the latest challenge from this is me. the topic was your collection(s). it was pretty funny to think of all the things i've gone crazy over in the past few years. i really am loving these challenges.

oooh, also i finally gave in and watched everything is illuminated the other night. it's been on my netflix queue for a while, but i looooooooove the book and movies are never as good as books, plus i had heard that it kind of ruins the book. anyway, i gave it a try and it was amazing! like it made my breathing slower and i was totally captivated amazing. it was hilarious, heartbreaking and lovely. it's right up there with fur: an imaginary portrait of diane arbus as one of the most captivating movies of the past couple of years for me.

and speaking of captivating, is anyone else watching pushing daisies? this show is quirky, funny and charming. all while being totally visually stunning. it's about this piemakes, ned, who has the power to bring people back from the dead with just one touch, but if he keeps them alive for more than a minute someone else will die in their place. he, "puts them back how they belong" simply by touching them again, and then it's for good. he is tied up with a private investegator who uses ned's powers to help him find out what happened to murder victims so that he can collect the reward. it all goes amiss when his childhood love, and first kiss, who he hasn't seen since he was 10 is killed and he wakes her and can't bring himself to "put her back" needless to say, it's hard to be in love and not be able to touch at all. you really have to see it! it reminds me of the new charlie and the chocolate factory visually, six feet under quirk wise and it's adorable. plus the girl who plays chuck reminds me of jenny lewis, kristen chenowith is in it and i think the piemaker is kind of adorable in a weird way. sorry for the ramble, but after only two episodes it is quickly becoming one of my new favorite shows of this season.

anyway, time for me to stop said rambling and get a little creativity going.

..::edit::.. they just put up a new this is me challenge and it's a total toughie! doodle a whole page?!?!?!? don't know if i can handle that today!

hapiness is___________

g*town! yes, i know that we were only in georgetown the one day, but i couldn't very well list like 3 towns on the cover of this mini, could i?



if you move your mouse over the picture you can go to the next page in the book.

worked on this little one yesterday at the sis crop at mlpa. it was a fun day; scrapping, cute tattooed boy to look at while we had lunch at arby's, curly fries, and prizes for all! not to mention scrapping with cool ladies!

this is just my first set of layouts in this book. i'm going to combine the stuff that came in the kit with some randoms from my stash and kristina's awesome new collection over at scrap in style, label love. i won the paper pack at the crop yesterday, so i got a peak of the paper and it's so fun! love all the papers named after designers and it just made me even more psyched to see the full collection when it shows up at my door. i'm real psyched on that thick wood postcard! plus, it will be so much easier cutting in to the paper knowing that i have a second sheet. haha.

ooh, the friday before the crop i went and scrapped at trish's with some of the sassy scrappers and totally caught up on the, this is me challenge. it feels so good to be caught up, especially when i really love all my layouts for it. they are so relazing to do because i don't feel any pressure at all, it's totally up to me wether i want it to look really art journal-y or like a layout layout. and, some of them have been really theraputic to do too. here are all my pages for it so far. the only stinky part about being caught up though is that now i have to wait for the new challenges, haha.

a catch up list!

yeah, things have been crazy, so here are a few things that have been going on and some random thoughts;

* the scrap pink crop @ mlpa with the east coast girls was actually pretty productive for me and the sleepover party was lots of fun!

* did anyone else notice that on that new show, "chuck" when they are trying to figure out how much info has been uploaded to his brain they show him lot's of images to see if they prompt anything and when he starts listing tons of government secrets one of them is, "oceanic flight 815 was shot down from the sky on..." holy lost reference!!! shot down?!?!? what?!?!?

* i bought myself the "employee of the year" office mug in the dollar section at target, haha.

* i got the bottom tier of the clip it up and the whole thing is filled with just my alphas!!! oops! this was disturning enough to me when i thought the bottom tier had 40 clips, then i realized it actually has 80!!! jeez!

* i just made really cute leaves out of daisy d's autumn paper for the front window of the store.

* i am still trying to figure out how to make the fisheye/lomo pictures i take look as good as they do in the examples.

* i love that i'm evan's go to girl for metalcore shows, haha.

* annabelle, my 3yo still a kitten, is being a total cuddlebug lately, y'know, in her own way.

* i am absolutly in love with the, "this is me" challenges!

* yeah, i'll admit it, i'm totally digging gossip girl! can't believe that people let their teenage and younger girls read these books!

* it's thursday and i already know what i'm bringing to the SIS crop @ mlpa saturday!

* speaking of crops, have you seen the classes for scrapbowl '08? holy heck! they are awesome. right now there are 4 i want to take, plus the crop time. anyone want to buy a kidney?

* i'm finally used to my hair being dark, but still get a little sad when i think about not being a redhead anymore, atleast i still have the attitude!

* i got the absolute most amazing happy mail package ever yesterday!!!

* i soooooo am going crazy waiting for my orders from SIS and hambly.

* thanks to katie i am on the lookout for a typewriter for journaling fun.

* i'm totally not a fan of the fact that the leaves are starting to change and it's still close to 90 out! that's not how it's supposed to happen! it doesn't even smell like fall yet!

* i just put out all the thanksgiving and holiday stuff for the store, and it looks totally adorable. and now i'm off to rotate some more stuff to keep it fresh!

finally on my way!

i've been wanting to start this from the day the blog started but y'know how things go! so, i finally "made" my cover, which was pretty much just sticking some thickers on a photo and slapping it on to the front of this awesome corduroy woodgrain album i got from the clearance bin at old navy a few years a go. this rainy grey days seems perfect for sitting here at work, listening to bright eyes and working on all the pages for it. i can't believe there have been 10 prompts already! there are so many challenge blogs out there right now, but i love that this one will really be a challenge for me since i am not the best at getting around to journaling and that's what this one's all about. plus most people's layouts don't have any pictures on them, which will be fun to experiment with.

i finally did it! i bucked up and dyed my hair dark chocolate brown!!! it feels so crazy. i don't want to post any before and after pics until i get it cut on tuesday so y'all can see the crazy big change. eek! i had to do it last night cause it's getting crazy the next couple of days, which i totally love!

tonight kate and i are going out, that's right out, as in around other people where i might actually have a chance of meeting a new guy, crazy! and then sunday is my short day at work, so it can be a catch up day when i get home, making evan a birthday present, circle journals, burning cd's and doing laundry. monday it's off to long island to help kristina with her scrap space and heroes season premiere fun! then tuesday is my day in philly, coffee with tim, lunch with ashley, getting my hair cut, meeting evan and then we're off to the rilo kiley show with ashley, simon, john and jasmine. can not wait to see jenny perform live, love her like crazy, but always seem to miss her shows!

anyway, i'm off for my rainy day arts and crafts.

sought.

i finally got to one of the "one little word" challenges! it's even before the deadline! gigi's word was seek. i automatically thought of the pictures i took of myself reading in rittenhouse square and that led directly to the new scenic route sumner collection. have you ever been working on a layout and you just wanted to finish because you are so excited and you can already tell that it's turning out way better than you hoped?!?!? well this layout? it makes my heart all squeezy!



it was fun to go back to 12x12 for a bit. i think i will catch up on all the "one little word" challenges and make them all either 12x12 or 6x12 and keep them in their own album.

oooh, speaking of things that make my hear all squeezy... have you seen the new kur+ #alsey prints? holy wow! this one def makes my heart squeezy;


and is it just me, or does this look suspiciously like mates of state?



i need to start scrapping some kur+ real soon. i love so much of his stuff. how could i not? it totally speaks the the inner softie in me. ugh! haha.

are you talking jack on me?!?!?

yeah i know, but they are just going to get cheesier and cheesier as time goes on! here is my jack of meghan dymock, the second of those wonderful effer girls to get darejacked. totally out of my box, but def an interesting style to try out. i don't know if it stinks or if i just think it stinks because it's not what i used to. haha. oh well, here it is!



as for the new york trip, it was way fun! we ate at this place, vnyl, and it was super fun.



the whole place is so rad! there is this cool mosaic right when you walk in the front door;



the inside is really rad too and as always, i am constantly impressed with nyc retaurent bathrooms. there were 4 bathrooms; elvis, cher, dolly and nelly and they each had a mosaic and 4th grade style diorama of the artist whose name was on the door. and the artists music plays in there. so totally weird but hilarious. plus, you have to love a place that serves wraps, breakfast all day and thai. such a random combination!

it was totally rad to see kerry and just reminded me how much i miss her! she is so faraway in austin going to law school! we hit a bar afterwards for a quick drink and niles was there, haha. y'know david hyde pierce. so funny!

alright, i'm off for now, but i'll try to be a better blogger, promise!